ITEM #XXX-XXXX-XXXXX
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Montana Board of Regents
ACADEMIC PROPOSAL REQUEST FORM
Item Number:
Institution:
Program Title:
XXX-XXXX-XXXXX
Meeting Date:
The University of Montana
CIP Code: 42.2805
School Psychology Graduate Training Program
Please mark the appropriate type of request and submit with an Item Template and any additional materials, including those
listed in parentheses following the type of request. For more information pertaining to the types of requests listed below, how to
complete an item request, or additional forms please visit the Academic Affairs Handbook.
A. Notifications:
Notifications are announcements conveyed to the Board of Regents at the next regular meeting.
1a. Placing a program into moratorium (Document steps taken to notify students, faculty, and other constituents and
include this information on checklist at time of termination if not reinstated)
1b. Withdrawing a program from moratorium
2. Intent to terminate an existing major, minor, option or certificate – Step 1 (Phase I Program Termination Checklist)
3. Campus Certificates- Adding, re-titling, terminating or revising a campus certificate of 29 credits or less
4. BAS/AA/AS Area of Study
B. Level I:
Level I proposals are those that may be approved by the Commissioner of Higher Education. The approval of such
proposals will be conveyed to the Board of Regents at the next regular meeting of the Board.
1. Re-titling an existing major, minor, option or certificate
2. Adding a new minor or certificate where there is a major or an option in a major (Curriculum Proposal Form)
3. Revising a program (Curriculum Proposal Form)
4. Distance or online delivery of an existing degree or certificate program
5. Terminating an existing major, minor, option or certificate – Step 2 (Completed Program Termination Checklist)
Temporary Certificate or AAS Degree Program
Approval for programs under this provision will be limited to two years. Continuation of a program beyond the two
years will require the proposal to go through the normal Level II Proposal approval process.
ITEM #XXX-XXXX-XXXXX
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Montana Board of Regents
ACADEMIC PROPOSAL REQUEST FORM
C. Level I with Level II Documentation:
This type of proposal may go to the Board as a Level I item if all Chief Academic Officers are in agreement. If consensus
among the Chief Academic Officers is not reached, however, the item will go to the Board as a Level II request.
1. Consolidating existing programs and/or degrees (Curriculum Proposal Form)
X
D. Level II:
Level II proposals require approval of the Board of Regents. These requests will go to the Board in a two-meeting
format, the first being as informational and the second as action.
X
1. Re-titling a degree (ex. From B.A. to B.F.A)
2. Adding a new minor or certificate where there is no major or option in a major (Curriculum Proposal Form)
3. Establishing a new degree or adding a major or option to an existing degree (Curriculum Proposal Form)
4. Forming, eliminating or consolidating a college, division, school, department, institute, bureau, center, station,
laboratory or similar unit (Curriculum Proposal Form or Center Proposal Form, except when eliminating or consolidating)
5. Re-titling a college, division, school, department, institute, bureau, center, station, laboratory or similar unit
Specify Request:
This is to request that Specialist level School Psychology Graduate students receive an SSP degree (Specialist in School
Psychology), instead of the EdS (Education Specialist) degree. This is only a retitling; it does not include any course
changes. The School Psychology program is entirely administrated from the Department of Psychology. For example, all
core School Psychology faculty are housed in the department, including the director. The vast majority of coursework is
taken from faculty in the Department of Psychology as well. The SSP degree is more fitting, given the program’s
academic location. Education Specialist degrees are traditionally offered from programs within Colleges of Education,
whereas the SSP degree is an appropriate title for degrees from Psychology Departments.
The history and reason as to why the EdS degree was originally chosen is unclear, especially since the core School
Psychology faculty have always been housed in Psychology. Several emails regarding the history that were sent to the
originator of the School Psychology program (retired in 2003) were not returned. However, I surmise two likely reasons.
One is that the core program coursework, in the past, did make use of a relatively larger number of courses from the
(then) College of Education, particularly counseling courses. This is no longer the case. Second, The EdS tends to be the
most common Specialist Level degree, and the person(s) starting the program may not have known of other titling
choices. The current request is to change the Specialist degree title from an EdS (because the program is not now, nor
has ever been, housed in the College of Education and Human Sciences), to the Specialist in School Psychology (SSP)
degree, which is fitting for programs within departments of Psychology. All students that matriculated into the EdS
program would be able to choose whether to receive that degree, or the newly approved (if approved) SSP.